Thursday, July 24, 2003

US ponders non-aggression deal North Korea: "The United States may give Pyongyang a formal guarantee that it will not invade North Korea, as part of a reported new attempt to defuse the crisis over the communist state's nuclear arms program... The prospect of a guarantee that the US will not launch an attack on North Korea was said to have been discussed with the Chinese envoy, Dai Bingguo, in talks in Washington last week... Washington will want plenty in return for a deal, having consistently maintained it would not reward North Korea for what it calls bad behaviour. It is likely to want a verifiable dismantling of the nuclear program as a prerequisite step - something Pyongyang has previously refused."

This is another way of saying that US threats either to invade, attack, or overthrow the regime is the genesis of the current crisis. Talk about "bad behaviour." The demand that North Korea should disarm, however, is likely to be resisted. As the NK regime has previously explicitly stated based on the Iraq experience, disamament and weapons inspectors do not stop war, rather they spark it. All countries in the region, including Australia, should apply maximum pressure to the US to undertake not to invade or attack North Korea.

US ponders non-aggression deal North Korea: "The United States may give Pyongyang a formal guarantee that it will not invade North Korea, as part of a reported new attempt to defuse the crisis over the communist state's nuclear arms program... The prospect of a guarantee that the US will not launch an attack on North Korea was said to have been discussed with the Chinese envoy, Dai Bingguo, in talks in Washington last week... Washington will want plenty in return for a deal, having consistently maintained it would not reward North Korea for what it calls bad behaviour. It is likely to want a verifiable dismantling of the nuclear program as a prerequisite step - something Pyongyang has previously refused."

This is another way of saying that US threats either to invade, attack, or overthrow the regime is the genesis of the current crisis. Talk about "bad behaviour." The demand that North Korea should disarm, however, is likely to be resisted. As the NK regime has previously explicitly stated based on the Iraq experience, disamament and weapons inspectors do not stop war, rather they spark it. All countries in the region, including Australia, should apply maximum pressure to the US to undertake not to invade or attack North Korea.